March 21, 2012

Planting a Rainbow

So I was up in the middle of the night thinking about plastic fruit cups yesterday...I'm sure you've noticed how I've used them a little in some crafts over the last couple months. First in the Polar Bear Mask and last week to make Leprechaun Hat Treats.

Well, it all started several months ago when my husband got a little antsy about my growing collection of them in the cupboard. I can't really say I blame him because seriously people, it was definitely a collection! We have been through this battle before with empty toilet paper rolls...To his dismay, I was adamant in keeping them because I was going to come up with something brilliant to make with them. A couple weeks later he received Dynamite TNT Bombs filled with candy, made out of Toilet Paper rolls for Father's Day! Bahahahaha! I still laugh to this day thinking about how it was my way at getting back at him. :)

So when I was up the other night with my brain in overdrive, I suddenly had a light bulb come on in my head with billions of ideas of what I could make with fruit cups. I know, I know, I have issues! Since yesterday was the first day of Spring and we have had some pretty bulbs pop up in the front yard, we decided to get out our favorite Springtime book Planting a Rainbow byLois Ehlert and then we planted ourselves a very pretty rainbow (using fruit cups of course!)....

It is now the centerpiece on our kitchen table and every time I walk by it, it is greeted with a cheery smile! I love Spring!

This spanned out to be a two day project for us. We painted everything one day and let it dry completely overnight. Then we finished assembling it the next day.

Start by painting the inside of your fruit cups all of the colors of the rainbow (No need to paint the outside). We threw in some pink and a couple different shades of blue as well. Also, paint your wooden craft sticks green and the bottom of your egg carton brown. We used acrylic paint. Let the paint dry completely.

Affix the bottom of the fruit cups to the wooden sticks. You can use school glue but since we are inpatient around this house, we used a hot glue gun.

While you have the hot glue gun out, glue a large pom-pom in the center of each cup. Try to use a variety of different colors instead of just yellow. I let my kids choose the colors and place them inside the cups once I had put some hot glue in them. Then my kids cut some stems out of green paper and glued them onto the stems with school glue.

In order to poke the flowers into the egg carton, an adult will have to use a craft knife to cut a small slit in the middle of each egg carton section. You won't be able to place a flower in each section because they will be too crowded, so scatter them out over the egg carton.

Now you can poke all of the flowers into the egg carton. Last, we diluted some school glue with a little bit of water and used a paint brush to paint it all over the egg carton. Then spread the green Easter Grass all over the egg carton.

Happy Spring!!

To see what we did last year after reading Planting a Rainbow, CLICK HERE.

I love this project! And I think your husband and mine could probably form a support group for wives who can't throw stuff away because they're craft obsessed. I finally had to let my husband throw out the Bounce dryer sheet boxes I was saving. (Drats! Inspiration didn't hit before he discovered them.) :)

This is ADORABLE! On April 2nd, TinkerLab is having a Linky Challenge using egg cartons and I have been racking (sp?) my brain trying to come up with something different and unique. Hopefully in the next few days I come up with SOMETHING! Erg! But I hope you link up on her site though. It will be fun! I love that this craft is done mostly with recycled materials! Good job! :) Will have to do it with my son!

I love this idea! I would like to try it our in my class. I did do a test flower but the paint didn't stick!! What kind of paint did you use? My next attempt will be to add glue to the paint. Thanks for posting this great idea.

@Janet S Janet, we used two coats of acrylic paint on the fruit cups. Ours seemed to stay intact pretty well. We used this same technique for our polar bear mask and I did notice some paint chipped off after the kids played with them endlessly for an entire day, but the majority of it stayed on the cup.Hope this is helpful and I hope your class enjoys this craft! :)

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